Analysis

"Hamas is looking beyond that at the benefits of the conflict. It is now much more difficult for Abbas to continue giving Hamas a secondary role in a Palestinian unity government. As for Netanyahu, his efforts to undermine such a government may have been damaged, since any resolution to the Gaza crisis may have to include the Palestinian government as a party," writes Michael Young in the Daily Star.

"The second-best solution might be to have the Palestinian Authority, which is more moderate than Hamas and after all is supposed to be nominally in charge of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, assert its actual authority in Gaza. Yet, surprisingly, there does not seem to be much discussion of this option. That may well be a tribute to Hamas's success–little discussed but hugely significant–in knee-capping Fatah's infrastructure in Gaza," writes CFR's Max Boot in Commentary.

"Without a process that includes all parties at the negotiating table, though, I fear this cycle of violence, punitive and disproportionate as it is, can lead only to an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-type extremism among the Palestinians. Only the darkest cynic would wish for that," writes Mohammed Omer for the New York Times.

AFRICA

CAR Rivals Ink Cease-Fire

Rival armed groups on Wednesday signed a cease-fire agreement in a bid to end more than a year of conflict. The predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels dropped their demand for the country's partition (BBC) in a deal with the rival anti-Balaka militia, which is predominantly Christian.